Monday, October 24, 2011

Muhammad Galaa Idris: Another cause for the hatred of Jews is the social cause. Due to the sense of superiority of the Jews, they lived in separate quarters in all societies. These were called ghettoes in the West.

The Jews were responsible for all the depravity that has spread in society. The gangs of thieves… The stories of Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist and others – exemplify that. They show how the Jews would deal with stolen goods and so on. The Jews were behind the spread of immorality, prostitution, and licentiousness in Europe. They were behind the spread of all sins, and they are to this day. This is written in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. We've discussed this. Moral corruption is part of the conspiracy.
In France, you will not face trial if you deny the existence of God. You can deny the existence of Sarkozy without facing trial. But if you deny the Holocaust – or even question the figures – you will be held accountable.
This is a part of a campaign to brainwash the world. The Jews have managed to brainwash Europe.Source.

Muhammad Abdu: Israel, that plundering, crude, cruel, and criminal entity, which wants to devour the remainder of our lands, but will not succeed in this new era, as massacres can only take place in silence, but the Arab peoples have learned to talk, and will never be silent again...
Sabra and Shatila haunt you, sons of Zion, from Lebanon to the Palestinian homeland, you will not escape the punishment of Allah, our Creator, nor that of our blessed people and kinfolk.

Tomorrow, we will destroy Israel and wipe it out of existence, if the millions respond to the call.
Oh sons of a sow, your hands are soiled with the blood of the peoples, from the Al-Aqsa Mosque to China.

Tomorrow, I will blow up Dimona, and those who have killed my family, my people, and deprived me of my orchards.
Allah willing, we will deprive them of the lives they are living. One after the other, the rockets of truth will reach them, until we cleanse our Arab land of these criminal murderers. Source.

Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog.Here.

Did You Know Feds Will Temporarily Cut Off All TV and Radio Broadcasts on Nov. 9 ?(TheBlaze).If you have ever wondered about the government’s ability to control the civilian airwaves, you will have your answer on November 9th.On that day, federal authorities are going to shut off all television and radio communications simultaneously at 2:00PM EST to complete the first ever test of the national Emergency Alert System (EAS).This isn’t a wild conspiracy theory. The upcoming test is posted on the Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau website.Only the President has the authority to activate EAS at the national level, and he has delegated that authority to the Director of FEMA. The test will be conducted jointly by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through FEMA, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) National Weather Service (NWS).In essence, the authority to seize control of all television and civilian communication has been asserted by the executive branch and handed to a government agency.The EAS has been around since 1994. Its precursor, the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS), started back in 1963. Television and radio broadcasters, satellite radio and satellite television providers, cable television and wireline video providers are all involved in the system.So this begs the question: is the first ever national EAS test really a big deal?Probably not. At least, not yet.But there are some troubling factors all coming together right now that could conceivably trigger a real usage of the EAS system in the not too distant future. A European financial collapse could bring down U.S. markets. What is now the “Occupy” movement could lead to widespread civil unrest. And there are ominous signs that radical groups such as Anonymous will attempt something major on November 5th- Guy Fawke’s day.Now we know in the event of a major crisis, the American people will be told with one voice, at the same time, about an emergency.All thats left to determine is who will have control of the EAS when that day comes, and what their message will be.Hmmm......Who has the autority to switch it back on?Read the full story here.

Obama’s bold gamble on Iraq.(AlArabiya).By L. Paul Bremer III.In announcing that all American troops will be out of Iraq by year’s end, President Obama has placed a big bet on the future of Iraq and on America’s position in a restive Middle East. While the initial public response to his decision, in America and in Iraq, may be positive, this will not shield him from the consequences if his bet goes sour. The single most salient lesson in countries emerging from tyranny is the importance of providing security for the population. This is not just one of many tasks that must be addressed: security is the essential prerequisite to progress in the other two foreseeable challenges – in Iraq, Egypt, and now Libya: beginning a process of political reform and starting economic reconstruction.The American government learned this lesson the hard way in Iraq. For several years after Saddam was thrown out we lacked the comprehensive counterinsurgency strategy and sufficient forces needed to provide security to the Iraqi people. Predictably, security deteriorated as an unholy alliance of Sunni and Shia terrorists, the first backed by al Qaeda, the other by Iran, took advantage of the situation. The deficiencies in strategy and troops while Iraq’s own national security forces were still in training produced a bloody and chaotic year in 2006.There were two game-changers in Iraq.

1. President Bush’s courageous decision to change strategy and to surge forces. Contrary to widespread skepticism in the American political class, these decisions gradually brought the security under much better control.

2. The almost unimaginable stoicism of the Iraqi people. In many individual months in 2006 and early 2007, Iraqi casualties from terrorism were greater, as a percent of the country’s population, than the casualties America experienced on 9/11. Fortunately, by the summer of 2011 violence had fallen against both Americans and Iraqis.

Despite this progress, every Iraqi –Sunni or Shia, Arab or Kurd, man or woman – I have spoken to during the past year has insisted on the importance of keeping American forces in Iraq even after the expiration of the current Status of Forces Agreement. Despite a ramped-up program of military training, Iraqi military leaders have privately and publicly asserted that Iraq’s security forces are not yet prepared to protect the country. American military commanders share this assessment, which is one of several reasons a year ago the commanders on the ground recommended seeking Iraqi agreement to keep some 20,000 American troops there after 2011.Without access to all the diplomatic exchanges between our countries, it is difficult to judge whether a better outcome was possible. Certainly Iraqi national feeling against granting American forces immunities was strong. Clearly, no president could agree to station them there without those immunities. But it is the essence of good statecraft to resolve conflicting interests. And it is clear from his words and body language that President Obama’s heart was not in winning the war in Iraq. Indeed, when he announced the withdrawal he merely noted that “America’s war in Iraq is over.” That is cold comfort to the millions of Iraqis who are left to fend for themselves in one of the world’s most dangerous regions.The administration’s ill-disguised desire to get out of Iraq, mirrored by its decision to wage the war in Afghanistan on a political timetable, placed Iraqi politicians who wanted a residual American presence in an impossible situation. How could they stick their necks out to push for American troops when the administration gave them no cover?In his announcement the president noted that American troops have been in Iraq nine years. But no war can be waged or won on a timetable. NATO forces are still in the Balkans after almost 20 years. American forces have been in Europe and Asia for more than a half-century. During my service in Europe I saw firsthand how those troops added to American security by deterring conflict in two vital areas of the world.Perhaps quiet negotiations can still find a way to reverse this policy. American troops in Iraq would serve our joint interests in four ways:

First, by finishing the job of training Iraqi forces to defeat domestic enemies and deter foreign ones. Effective training requires professional American troops and Iraqis working side by side until the Iraqis are capable of handling the job themselves.

Second, by fighting al-Qaeda and Iranian-backed terrorists. Both are still active in Iraq. Our retreat will leave them a tempting vacuum.

Third, by continuing to provide an unspoken “buffer” along the Green Line that separates Iraqi Kurdish and Arab forces in the north.

Most importantly, a continuing American military presence would make it clear that America has enduring interests in the volatile Middle East and does not intend to let al Qaeda or Iraq’s neighbors, especially the terrorist states of Iran and Syria, benefit from any weakness of ours.Hmmm.......After handing over Tunesia toAl-Qaida and the MuslimBrotherhood receiving Egypt ...now presenting Iraq to Iran?Read the full story here.

Obama's Foreign Policy: Manchurian Candidate or Keystone Kop?(DocsTalk).By BarryRubin.Virtually since the day President Barack Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, I’ve been reporting in great detail on his disastrous Middle East policy. I believe nobody in the world has written more thoroughly documented words and provided more factually based analysis explaining why this policy is so bad than me.And so I am often asked whether I believe this situation is caused by a deliberate, conscious effort to destroy U.S. interests, subvert Israel’s existence, and promote anti-American Islamists on the part of the president and his closest colleagues.No, I answer, it is the result of ignorance, incompetence, and a ridiculous ideological approach that has nothing to do with reality. But, I add, it certainly says something that the policy is so bad that it makes people think that deliberate treason is a credible explanation. Recently, an expert I respect who likes my work asked me the following:“At what point do "oblivious," clueless," or "misguided" no longer describe what is going on here?“At what point do we say that the top levels of the U.S. government and our national security leadership are wittingly complicit in supporting a Muslim Brotherhood takeover of large parts of the Middle East? As you lay out these events and facts, there is simply no other conclusion to be drawn: this is deliberate.

“When does it become treasonous or at the very least an abrogation of Constitutional oaths of office and dereliction of duty?

I believe the first and last paragraphs are wrong but the second one is partly right. They don’t fear the Muslim Brotherhood getting into office because they think it won’t happen or can be turned into a good thing. This is horrible but not consciously evil. How can we explain Obama’s behavior on the Middle East? I’m not the least bit surprised or baffled. I do not think the fact that this isn’t “treasonous” is a mitigating circumstance. Beyond a certain point, gross incompetence and systematic stupidity are inexcusable sins in politics even if not crimes. The sentence should be voting them out of office as soon as possible.The great French diplomatist (and thoroughly evil human being) Charles de Talleyrand put it this way: “This is worse than a crime, it’s a blunder.” You can feel some respect for an evil genius cleverly following his plan but none at all for a fool putting his country’s interests and the lives of millions of people at risk, refusing to change course even when his strategy is obviously failing.You just have to sit at dinner with a State Department guy, for example, who tells you in great detail how the battle went within the bureaucracy over accepting Islamism as something good for the United States or watch how the CIA generated studies fixed to exclude truth in arguing Islamism isn't a threat. It's only mysterious if you don't see it up close.Here is what we should see:

First, Obama thinks he’s very knowledgeable about Islam, based on very limited personal contacts. Aside from his profound misunderstandings, his experiences come from Indonesia, the place where mainstream Islam was more moderate than in any other Muslim-majority country. And even that predates the infusion of Wahhabi and al-Qaida thinking even in that country.In my opinion, the worst single blunder of Obama in the Middle East was his Cairo speech telling people in the region that they should perceive their primary identity as Muslim rather than in national terms. The idea that political Islam could be some asset for the United States--rather than an enemy being held back largely by nationalism--was like putting a big bomb next to a fragile dam. Yet Obama thought it was some act of far-sighted genius on his part because he could tame political Islam.

Second, Obama is a narrow-minded and arrogant man who understands little about international affairs or the profound differences of other cultures. He neither listens to ideas outside his own conception nor heeds proof that he has failed. A clever evil genius adjusts himself to circumstances, determined he will always look good. Obama is merely wrong and incompetent, openly displaying ignorance.

Third, his conception of the United States and its role in the world should render him unfit to be president. He views the United States as evil and aggressive historically while also rejecting the most basic concepts of U.S. interests and the conduct of international affairs.He deliberately refuses to show leadership; doesn’t think American diplomacy should reward friends and punish enemies; believes concessions and apologies can win over enemies; and really doesn’t understand the importance of credibility, deterrence, and leverage to frighten and constrain enemies. He is obsessed with popularity, that least important factor in international affairs. In his mind, there is a sneaking suspicion that the enemies are the good guys.In these ideas, Obama is similar to the far left in America and Europe. The problem, of course, is that none of those clueless impractical intellectuals is commander-in-chief of the world’s greatest power.

Fourth, he has two sets of people eager to misadvise him. One is the ideologues he has brought into government, especially in the National Security Council and several other appointees (David Axelrod and Ram Emanuel are of little or no importance on these foreign policy decision-making issues.) The other is a significant portion of the CIA.Large elements in the State and Defense departments are horrified by Obama’s Middle East policy. The Defense Department is burdened with new commitments and handed impossible missions by a man its officials know looks down on them, has little sympathy for their problems, and no appreciation of their professional culture.State gasps as Obama dismantles a Middle East policy it has spent decades building and nurturing. Briefly, that policy was alliance with relatively moderate states—Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia—to fight radical regimes and movements. They dislikeed Israel because they thought it got in the way of links to Arab powers. But they certainly don’t want their pet regimes overthrow, systematically insulted, while the president cares more for the very radical Islamists they were fighting to keep out of power!What is the alternative, now dominant view? This interpretation considers the virtually sole danger to be al-Qaida and its terrorist attacks against America. In order to ensure Islamists aren’t radicalized to behave that way, they want to coopt radical Islamists they consider far less threatening. They insist that such Islamists are far less extreme than people like me say and that holding power will moderate them. This travesty is born of Western ignorance about Islam and Islamism; discounting the power of ideology and the nature of these societies; assuming that everyone thinks alike in wanting more material goods; putting all their effort on stopping another September 11 (even at the expense of massive strategic losses); presuming moderation is inevitable, etc.These people believe that the “Turkish model” is just fine and dandy rather than seeing it as an extremely dangerous way for radical Islamists to seize and hold power to carry out anti-American and aggressive goals. This misunderstanding is key to their failure to understand Arab politics or Islamism, as is the idea that Facebook kid community organizer yuppies are any match for Jihadists.We’ve seen this before many times. Major General William Elphinstone, commander of the British army in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1842, was no traitor. He simply believed the Afghan rulers who promised him safe passage back to India. Of 12,000 soldiers and civilians, only about 12 survived the subsequent massacre.Other examples include pre-World War Two appeasement and the post-World War Two view that Third World Communists could be coopted, or those portraying Fidel Castro as a misunderstood moderate and Mao Zedong as an agrarian reformer. Another case was the idea that Yasir Arafat could be turned into a pragmatic moderate by giving him power and meeting most of his demands.Then there are the current European domestic policies of funding and backing to radical Islamists in order to “defeat” Jihadists. When Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said last February that the Muslim Brotherhood was a harmless reformist group, he meant it. That’s what his CIA briefers told him. The only administration correction was that it isn’t a “secular” group. All the really damaging misconceptions were fully accepted by the Obama Administration.So the administration is either helping Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood to get into power or risking this happening (wrongly thinking they won’t win elections) not because it wants to hurt America but because it is stupid and ignorant enough to think that will ultimately help America. Islamists will be moderated by power and the “need” to be pragmatic; or won’t win because the people want smart phones instead of suicide bombers; or they will love a U.S. government that is so nice to them.Similarly, this administration doesn’t hate Israel so much as think that country is foolish for not following policies that in fact would risk its existence. If only Israel realized how easy it would be to have a stable peace with a Palestinian state next door based on the 1967 borders, the Obama Administration thinks, the Israelis, too, would join the party and be much better off. Why are they such a stiff-necked people? This is all wrong and disastrous. But as George Orwell—who understood these things—once said, some ideas are so stupid that only an intellectual will believe them.None of these points makes the current leadership and policy more acceptable or good. Having Gomer Pyle and Forrest Gump in power (without those innocent nice-guy fool’s humility and moral compass) is not better than having a James Bond villain or Dr. Evil running things.How much does this matter? Not a great deal. The motive for having terrible policies is far less important than the fact that the policies are terrible. Moreover, one can prove what's happening is a disaster but can never irrefutably prove why it is happening.A fool is worse than a traitor if only because more people will vote for him.Hmmmm......The question is "Who's the Fool"?Read the full story here.

In first statement after his father’s death, Saif al-Islam Qaddafi vows to fight on.(AlArabiya).In his first statement after the death of his father Muammar Qaddafi, Saif al-Islam vowed to continue fighting “rats” and NATO forces in a one-minute audio message aired Saturday by a Syrian-based TV channel.“I say go to hell, you and NATO behind you. This is our country, we live in it, we die in it and we are continuing the struggle,” Saif al-Islam said, denying media reports that he had been captured and wounded in a final assault by revolutionary fighters on the coastal city of Sirte, where his father and brother Motassim were detained and killed under disputed circumstances.“I received a message from tribes in Bani Walid about a general consensus between them to respond to threats from the gangs of rats ─ revolutionaries and the NATO alliance,” Saif al-Islam said.Saif al-Islam’s whereabouts still remain unknown but a military commander of the interim National Transitional Council (NTC) said on Sunday that its fighters were surrounding an area where he was believed to have been hiding since fleeing Sirte last Wednesday.Commander Abdel Majid Mlegta was quoted as telling Reuters that the area is in the south of the town of Bani Walid, 150 km (100 miles) southwest of Tripoli. Bani Walid fell to the fighters earlier this month after putting up a determined resistance for several weeks. Saif al-Islam was widely reputed to have been based in the town during its resistance, before moving to Sirte.Mlegta said Qaddafi’s Niger-based security chief, Abdullah al-Senussi, had been in contact with Saif al-Islam to try to help him escape and flee to the neighboring country “but our brigades are encircling this area south of Bani Walid.”Mlegta did not elaborate on reports that NTC fighters had searched offices recently used by Saif al-Islam and had found material indicating that he had been researching areas south of Bani Walid include places called Wadi Zam Zam and Wadi al-Mandoum.Read the full story here.

New euro 'empire' plot by Brussels.(TheTelegraph).The proposal, put forward by Herman Van Rompuy, the European Council president, would be the clearest sign yet of a new “United States of Europe” — with Britain left on the sidelines.The plan comes as European governments desperately trying to save the euro from collapse last night faced a new bombshell, with sources at the International Monetary Fund saying it would not pay for a second Greek bail-out.It was also disclosed last night that British businesses are turning their back on Brussels regulations to give temporary workers full employment rights, with supermarket chain Tesco leading the charge.Meanwhile, David Cameron is attempting to face down a rebellion tomorrow by Tory MPs in a vote over staging a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU.Ministers expect 60 or 70 MPs to defy the party’s high command and back the call for a referendum, while some rebels claim the final toll could be up to 100 — about a third of the parliamentary party.Downing Street has upped the stakes dramatically. Last night, No 10 sources insisted they would impose a three-line whip — effectively ordering all Tory MPs to fall in line.Mr Cameron, who yesterday took personal charge of the effort to persuade MPs to back the Government, has come under intense pressure from Cabinet colleagues to try to defuse the revolt by offering concessions or a way out to rebels. Sources say a handful of parliamentary private secretaries — the lowest rung on the government ladder — might resign.The single Treasury plan emerged in Brussels yesterday as Europe’s finance ministers tried to find a way out of the crisis engulfing the eurozone. A full-scale rescue plan could cost about £1.75 trillion.British sources said Mr Van Rompuy, who is regarded as being close to the German government, suggested plans for a “finance ministry” to be based either in Frankfurt or Paris. The EU already has its own “foreign ministry”, headed by Baroness Ashton, the former British Labour minister, and based in Brussels.A senior Coalition source told The Sunday Telegraph: “I am well aware of arguments in Brussels and elsewhere in favour of a single Treasury. You’d get any number of different versions of 'Europe’ all running at very different speeds.”A series of meetings are due to be held over the next few days on the eurozone crisis that will involve the leaders of EU member states.Hmmmm......Flashback: 22 June MFS - The Other News:" A financial transaction tax which will allow the EU to raise its own tax, even set its own tax rates, without democratic oversight. "Where you heard it before?Read the full story here.

Libya's liberation: interim ruler unveils more radical than expected plans for Islamic law.(TheTelegraph).Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, the chairman of the National Transitional Council and de fact president, had already declared that Libyan laws in future would have Sharia, the Islamic code, as its "basic source".But that formulation can be interpreted in many ways - it was also the basis of Egypt's largely secular constitution under President Hosni Mubarak, and remains so after his fall.Mr Abdul-Jalil went further, specifically lifting immediately, by decree, one law from Col. Gaddafi's era that he said was in conflict with Sharia - that banning polygamy.In a blow to those who hoped to see Libya's economy integrate further into the western world, he announced that in future bank regulations would ban the charging of interest, in line with Sharia. "Interest creates disease and hatred among people," he said.Gulf states like the United Arab Emirates, and other Muslim countries, have pioneered the development of Sharia-compliant banks which charge fees rather than interest for loans but they normally run alongside western-style banks.In the first instance, interest on low-value loans would be waived altogether, he said.Libya is already the most conservative state in north Africa, banning the sale of alcohol. Mr Abdul-Jalil's decision - made in advance of the introduction of any democratic process - will please the Islamists who have played a strong role in opposition to Col Gaddafi's rule and in the uprising but worry the many young liberal Libyans who, while usually observant Muslims, take their political cues from the West.Hmmmm......Anytime a muslim with a zebiba on his forehead is declared a ‘moderate’ Islamist, Check for Unicorns in the neigbourhood.Read the full story here.

Canadian man in Saudi jail faces deteriorating health.(BikyaMasr).DUBAI: A Canadian man awaiting trial in Saudi Arabia is facing deteriorating health concerns, friends of the family have reported.According to The Canadian Press, Mohamed Kohail has been behind bars since 2007 on murder charges and had been sentenced to beheading by sword before the country’s Supreme Court overturned the death sentence in 2010.The Montreal resident, his friends and relatives said, has been waiting for a retrial since, but has developed a number of health problems as a result of his jailing.Sources close to the 26-year-old told The Canadian Press he had multiple operations this past summer for chronic tuberculosis — with the infection spreading dangerously close to his spinal cord.According to the report, he narrowly escaped paralysis earlier this year.Born in Palestine, Kohail and his younger brother Sultan moved to Canada with their family in 2000 and became Canadian citizens in 2005. They moved to Jedda in 2006.The Canadian foreign ministry has been hush over the jailing of one of its citizens, but in recent weeks has seemingly put increase pressure on the government in Riyadh to release Kohail and another Canadian citizen and his family who have also been detained in the country.Earlier this month, Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis said that the government must do more to pressure the conservative Gulf kingdom for their release.The MP has called on the government that Canada should, at the very least, “pressure for the children, two girls, aged 18 months and five years, to be released.” He said their jailing is a violation of international law and it should not matter what the parents are charged with.In a statement released by Karygiannis’ office, he said Majeed Uddin Ahmed, his wife Zareen and their two girls were picked up by police two weeks ago in Jeddah, where the family has been living for about four years.No information has been released on why the family was arrested.Read the full story here.

Saudi Arabia - The Shadow of Prince Nayef.(DocsTalk).By Irfan Al-Alawi.With the death of Saudi Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abd Al-Aziz early October 22 in a New York hospital, his brother, Saudi interior minister and second deputy prime minister Prince Nayef Ibn Abd Al-Aziz, now looms large in the world's attention as a possible successor to Saudi Arabia's current ruler, King Abdullah, who is now 87.Prince Nayef is a committed adherent of the hardliners in the Wahhabi sect and has resisted the cautious moves by King Abdullah to restrict Wahhabi dominance in the kingdom, which was founded in a marriage alliance of the Al-Saud family and the descendants of Muhammad Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab, for which the radical doctrine is named. To this day, the head Islamic cleric in the kingdom is Abd Al-Aziz Al Ash-Sheikh, a descendant of Ibn Abd Al-Wahhab. The aging King Abdullah's limited reforms have included increased freedom of expression; appointment of representatives of the Saudi Shia minority, which is concentrated in the oil-bearing Eastern Province, to the consultative Shura council, which advises the king; measures for more participation of women in society, including announcement of limited electoral rights for women last month; separation of educational and religious authorities; dismissal of ultra-Wahhabi judges from the Saudi court system, and cuts in financing for the institution most despised by the Saudi public, the mutawiyin or morals militia, officially titled the 'Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice,' and often mis-called a morals police.In reality, the mutawiyin are not police in the normal sense, but a mob that harasses those they accuse of less-than-absolute fidelity to Wahhabi concepts: women who may let the un-Islamic but Saudi-imposed face veil (niqab) and long cloak (abaya) slip in public; couples that may be unmarried (and sometimes are attacked by the mutawiyin even if wed); people suspected of possessing alcohol in their homes; Shia Muslims; foreign Muslims participating in the hajj pilgrimage; non-Muslims; and anyone else the mutawiyin may allege to be violating Wahhabi strictures. As interior minister, Prince Nayef is their guardian and their abuses symbolize his role in the lives of many Saudis. King Abdullah has tried to make the mutawiyin accountable for its offenses against individual and public dignity.Prince Nayef is described widely among Saudis as an opponent of any measures intended to ameliorate the kingdom's oppressive image. He has rejected the notion that women should be permitted to drive or be granted any other liberalization of their status. He has disdained the introduction of voting in the kingdom. He has stood behind the most recalcitrant members of the Wahhabi clerical apparatus as they maintain their hold on religious life in the kingdom. He has declared that no Saudi terrorism suspect will ever be turned over to a foreign country.Yet Prince Nayef and his son Prince Muhammad Bin Nayef, who was targeted in a mysterious suicide-bomb attack in 2009, have supervised the Saudi program for abatement of Al-Qaida terrorism. Their program for fighting violent extremism has stressed a "light" approach based on "reeducation" of Wahhabi fanatics about their deviant views. In the 2009 bombing attempt on Prince Muhammad Bin Nayef's life, the young scion was recorded in a pleasant conversation, just prior to their meeting, with the man who killed himself when he came to visit, and, it was said, to attack Prince Muhammad Bin Nayef, in Jeddah. Prince Muhammad Bin Nayef was barely harmed.The main effect of Prince Nayef's campaign against Al-Qaida has been to "export" the Saudi cadres of the terrorist movement to Yemen, where they have organized Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). AQAP incited such actions against the U.S. as the Fort Hood massacre of 2009. Other AQAP conspiracies in the UK and U.S. have included targeting of aircraft, including the case of the "underwear bomb," employed in an attempt to bring down a jetliner over Detroit by Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab at the end of the same year; Faisal Shahzad's placing of a truck bomb in Times Square in New York last year, and an endeavour to send bombs to Jewish synagogues in the U.S. via cargo courier services, also in 2010. In the last case, shipping numbers and addresses of the packages, in which explosives were placed, then handed to United Parcel Services and Federal Express offices in Yemen, were delivered by Prince Muhammad Bin Nayef to U.S. authorities... after the packages had been dispatched, but before they reached the U.S.The curious ease with which Prince Nayef and his son "handle" AQAP activities bespeaks an obvious question: is Prince Nayef's role that of a combatant against terrorism, or a figure who sees his mission as one of keeping Al-Qaida away from threats against the royal family and Saudi institutions? His fervent attachment to the Wahhabi creed seems to place him in the typical Saudi role of maintaining an alliance with the UK and U.S., which market Saudi oil and arm the Saudi defence establishment, while using Western money and security guarantees to promote the doctrines of the fundamentalists.The certainty of Prince Nayef's sinister reputation among the Saudi masses cannot be denied. He has declared "what we won by the sword we will keep by the sword." If Prince Nayef is elevated to the status of Crown Prince, and then succeeds King Abdullah as ruler, Saudis, other Muslims, and the world may expect a return of the kingdom to its old and worst habits. These will include suppression of internal dissent and of the forward-looking measures instituted by King Abdullah; attacks on non-Wahhabi Muslims; enhanced support for the mutawiyin as well as for jihadist adventurism in South Asia and elsewhere; and a more hostile line toward the UK and the U.S. As king, Nayef might continue to keep Al-Qaida out of Saudi territory, but it is doubtful he would act consequently against the sympathisers of the terrorists inside the Saudi elite, and their Wahhabi clerical enablers, as long as they do not threaten him, the Sudairis, and their accomplices. For the rest of the world, however, the shadow of Prince Nayef is long and menacing.While the effects of Prince Sultan's demise may be felt across the globe, only two things may be said with certainty about it, and it brings with it disturbing uncertainties, especially involving Prince Nayef.First, Crown Prince Sultan's death was not unexpected, since the seriousness of his illness – colon cancer – had been common knowledge for some time. But his biography included ambiguities, beginning with his age. According to an official statement, Crown Prince Sultan was 80 when he expired, although various media and related sources speculated that he might have been as old as 87.The other certainty about the death of Crown Prince Sultan is that Prince Nayef, aged 78 and his possible successor as Crown Prince, is feared profoundly by the kingdom's subjects for his extreme, retrograde views on Islam and the governance of the Saudi state. A new Crown Prince will be designated, but Prince Nayef, although treated by many foreign observers as inevitably next-in-line after Prince Sultan, may face significant opposition. Prince Nayef represents a genuine danger to the people of Saudi Arabia and the world, if he inherits the throne from King Abdullah.King Abdullah, a half-brother of Princes Sultan and Nayef, became monarch in 2005, with the death of the incapacitated King Fahd. Discontent between Abdullah, on one side, and the clan from which Fahd, Sultan and Nayef sprang, on the other, was already well-known in the kingdom and among foreign observers of its convoluted society. King Fahd, and Princes Sultan and Nayef, owed their power to membership in the influential set of full, blood brothers known as the Sudairi Seven, since they were all children of Princess Hassa Bint Ahmad Bin Muhammad Al-Sudairi, a favorite wife of King Muhammad Bin Abd Al-Aziz Ibn Saud, founder of the kingdom in 1932.The Sudairis are a powerful family in the central Arabian wasteland of Nejd, where the fundamentalist, exclusivist, radical and violent Wahhabi ideology emerged almost 300 years ago. With King Fahd and Crown Prince Sultan gone from the scene, the Sudairi clique at the summits of the monarchy now consists of five, among whom Prince Nayef is second in age, but the most important.King Abdullah, as a half-brother of the Sudairis, is not included in their preferred circle. He established an Allegiance Council in 2006-07, made up of 34 sons and grandsons of Ibn Saud, to administer the royal succession process. Most Saudis and foreign commentators interpreted the introduction of the new body as a means of diluting the power of the Sudairis, since they are a small minority within it. If the choice of a successor to Crown Prince Sultan is put in the hands of the Allegiance Council, Prince Nayef could be passed over in favour of someone else.In 2009, Prince Talal Bin Abd Al-Aziz challenged the appointment of Prince Nayef as second deputy prime minister, warning that this could make him 'heir apparent' to Crown Prince Sultan. The naming of Prince Nayef as second deputy prime minister was seen as a concession to the Sudairis. But Prince Talal called for strengthening the role of the Allegiance Council, of which he is a member, in the succession process. Still, no possible candidate to replace Crown Prince Sultan other than Prince Nayef has been suggested.King Abdullah's rise to the Saudi throne reflected a decline in the power of Princes Sultan, Nayef, and the rest of the Sudairis. Prince Sultan had served as minister of defence, in which position he oversaw extensive military contracting with the UK and U.S., and his son, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, was Saudi ambassador to Washington for more than 20 years, from 1983 until 2005. Prince Sultan enjoyed visiting the U.S. His son, Prince Bandar, was most famous for his cultivation of prominent Americans, his embassy parties, and his access to the White House, thanks to which Saudi Arabia gained advanced weaponry and military support.Although a full brother to the late Crown Prince Sultan, Prince Nayef is known for very different attitudes from his brother.Read the full story here.

Iran says 8 of 13 trapped divers are dead.(CTV).Tehran, Iran — Eight divers trapped underwater with five others after their support ship sank three days ago in the Persian Gulf have died, Iran's official news agency reported Sunday. Mohammad Rastad, an official in charge of the rescue operation, said the bodies of the eight divers, six of them Indians, have been recovered. He said there is no word about the fate of the remaining five missing divers. Out of 73 people on board, 60 were rescued. He said six bodies were found earlier. "Bodies of two more divers have been recovered from the depth of 72 metres," IRNA quoted Rastad as saying. The divers -- seven Indians, five Iranians and one Ukrainian -- were part of a team installing an underwater oil pipeline and were inside a pressurized diving chamber when their Koosha-1 ship sank in the Persian Gulf on Thursday afternoon in stormy seas. The diving chamber was on board the ship when it sank, and the divers were already inside to avoid having to pressurize and depressurize for their dives. The Iran-flagged Koosha-1 left Thursday from offshore oil rigs near the underwater South Pars gas field, the largest in the world, shared by both Iran and Qatar. The ship was involved in installing underwater pipelines. It sank in the Persian Gulf about 25 kilometres off Iran's coast.Read the full story here.

Saudi seizes toy guns mocking Prophet’s wife.(Emirates24/7).Saudi Arabia seized nearly 1,500 Chinese-made toy guns at a local market found to be issuing sounds that abuse and mock the Prophet’s (Peace Be Upon Him) wife, Aisha, newspapers in the Gulf kingdom reported on Sunday.Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the most influential law enforcement authority in the country, seized the toys during a raid on a shopping centre in the western town of Jeddah.“The guns were found to be issuing sounds which are considered mocking and offending against the Prophet’s wife,” the newspaper said, quoting Commission spokesman in Jeddah, Turki Al Zahrani.He said sellers of those toys, mostly Asians, apparently do not know they offend Islam as the guns issue sounds in Arabic.Read the full story here.

Analysis: India being ‘contained’ by growing Chinese footprint in Pakistan.(BigPeace).According to an Indian analysis, China’s rapidly increasing footprint in Pakistan-governed Kashmir and in Afghanistan represents an increasing military danger to India. There are some 3000-4000 Chinese, including troops, in Pakistan-governed Kashmir, stationed near the Line of Control (LOC) that separates the Pakistani and Indian regions, building major infrastructure projects. Kashmir and Jammu (K&J) were the site of an extremely bloody genocidal war between Hindus and Muslims following Partition, the 1947 war that following the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent, creating the states of India and Pakistan. The region is still disputed, and in recent years, China has become firmly and unequivocally on the side of Pakistan, making it clear that any war in the region will be on two fronts for India. In addition, China has been aggressively bidding for large energy and infrastructure projects in northern Afghanistan, meaning that China will have a strong presence in Afghanistan as the Americans withdraw. At that time, the Islamist Mujahadeen terrorists will be diverted away from Afghanistan towards K&J. The analysis concludes that India must increase its own footprint in Afghanistan. Generational Dynamics predicts that India and Pakistan will be re-fighting the genocidal 1947 war. Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses (IDSA).Read the full story here.

Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog.Here.

Video -Powerful earthquake hits Turkey.(YNet).A magnitude 6.6 earthquake hit near Van in southeastern Turkey on Sunday near the border with Iran, Turkey's Kandilli Observatory and Research Institute said, and media reported some buildings had collapsed. The institute said the earthquake struck at 10:41 am GMT and was 5 kilometers (three miles) deep. The US Geological Survey earlier reported that the magnitude was 7.6.State-run news agency Anatolian said some buildings had collapsed. After shocks continued after the initial quake, Anatolian said. "Two buildings collapsed in Van, but the telephone system is jammed due to panic and we can't assess the entire damage immediately," Bekir Kaya, the mayor of Van, told NTV television. The state-run Anatolia news agency said rescue workers were trying to reach people believed to be trapped under the wreckage of a seven-story building in Van, close to the Iranian border.A Reuters reporter in Hakkari, a town around 100 km (60 miles) south of the city of Van in southeastern Turkey, said he could feel the building sway for around 10 seconds. There was no immediate sign of any casualties or damage in Hakkari, around two and half hours drive through the mountains from Van, around 20 km (12 miles) from the epicenter.IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz has instructed the army to get ready to aid Turkey in coping with the powerful quake. Gantz said that an IDF delegation will head to Turkey once it receives approval from the government. Defense Minister Ehud Barak asked the head of the Political-Military Affairs section at the ministry, Amos Gilad to offer Turkey "all the help in needs". Major geological fault lines cross Turkey and small earthquakes are a near daily occurrence. Two large quakes in 1999 killed more than 20,000 people in northwest Turkey.Read and see the full story here.

Forensics complete autopsy on Muammar Qaddafi’s body but disclose no information.(AlArabiya).Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the “way his death happened poses an entire number of questions,” and called for a probe.Libyan forensic doctors carried out an autopsy overnight on the body of Muammar Qaddafi, the former Libyan leader killed last week, one of the people involved in the autopsy told Reuters on Sunday.“We worked all through the night. We just got done,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. He did not reveal any of the autopsy’s findings.The autopsy was carried out at a morgue in the city of Misrata, about 200 km (130 miles) east of Tripoli. Local officials said Qaddafi’s body would now be brought back to the cold store at an old market in Misrata where it has been on public display.Military commanders in Misrata said on Saturday that no autopsy would be carried out on the body despite concerns over how he died. As the rigid, bloodied, yellow corpses of Qaddafi and his son Mutassim lay on dirty mattresses on the metal floor of the glacial makeshift mortuary, hundreds of Libyans were allowed inside to view them.A man identifying himself as Sadiq said he was only 18 when the former dictator took power in 1969.“All my adult life I lived with this low life, this...” said the 60-year-old, who declined to give his last name, spattering curses against Qaddafi.“But he is dead and I am happy,” he said, laughing.U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay also called for an investigation, as did Claudio Cordone, senior director at Amnesty International, who said that if Kadhafi "was killed after his capture, it would constitute a war crime and those responsible should be brought to justice."NTC leaders are adamant he was shot in the head when he was caught “in crossfire” between his supporters and new regime fighters soon after his capture.Interim prime minister Mahmud Jibril told the BBC’s Hardtalk program that he would rather Qaddafi had survived.“To be honest with you at the personal level I wish he was alive. I want to know why he did this to the Libyan people,” he said. “I wish I were his prosecutor in his trial.”Jibril added that it would be “absolutely OK” to carry out a full investigation under international supervision into the killing, as long as Islamic burial rules were respected.Interim leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil said an investigation was being conducted into the circumstances of Qaddafi’s killing after several foreign governments and human rights watchdogs posed questions. Abdel Jibril said that they are dealing with the subject with transparency. Read the full story here.

BP wins approval to resume drilling in Gulf of Mexico.(BBC).BP has won approval to resume drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, 18 months after a well blowout killed 11 workers and caused an environmental disaster.Regulators approved plans for drilling to depths of up to 6,000ft about 200 miles off the coast of New Orleans.US officials said in a statement: "Our review of BP's plan included verification of BP's compliance with the heightened standards."The Gulf's Kaskida oilfield could contain up to 3bn barrels of crude.The US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management said BP's exploration plan meets the stringent standards issued by the government after last year's Deepwater Horizon disaster, as well as the additional self-imposed standards that BP has taken.In the months following the Deepwater affair, many analysts questioned whether BP had a future in the US.Last week, there were reports in the US that BP would not be barred from participating in an upcoming offshore oil and gas lease sale.Read the full story here.

"CHANGE" - Monster Prediction From BofA: Another US Debt Downgrade Is Coming In Just A Few Weeks.(BussinessInsider).In an analyst note, Bofa/ML Ethan S. Harris drops a bit of a bombshell prediction: We expect a moderate slowdown in the beginning of next year, as two small policy shocks—another debt downgrade and fiscal tightening—hit the economy. The “not-so-super” Deficit Commission is very unlikely to come up with a credible deficit-reduction plan. The committee is more divided than the overall Congress. Since the fall-back plan is sharp cuts in discretionary spending, the whole point of the Committee is to put taxes and entitlements on the table. However, all the Republican members have signed the Norquist “no taxes” pledge and with taxes off the table it is hard to imagine the liberal Democrats on the Committee agreeing to significant entitlement cuts. The credit rating agencies have strongly suggested that further rating cuts are likely if Congress does not come up with a credible long-run plan. Hence, we expect at least one credit downgrade in late November or early December when the super Committee crashes.This is quite a stunning prediction, mainly because nobody is talking about this. And though the experts were 100% wrong in thinking that a downgrade would increase borrowing costs, it did cause a major market jolt when it happened, leading to a major blow to confidence in August and September.Another round of that would certainly not be helpful.Hense Harris' note is titled "Enjoy It While It Lasts." We have a nice little upswing in economic data, but next year could be rough again, when these confidence shocks hit.Hmmmm......."We made all the right decisions"?Read the full story here.

Warning! Progressives’ NPV Plan for White House Control, 2012 and Permanently.(NewZeal).Gulag Bound.By Jacquerie.While the lamestream media holds public attention on GOP candidate rivalries, a “progressive” strategy is underway to eliminate the role of the states in electing a U.S. President. By transferring electoral votes to a “national popular vote” this “Compact” would usurp the role of the states as safeguarded by our Constitution. In doing so, it could also neutralize Obama’s critics — totally.This may be the most vital – and time sensitive - expose WAM has ever uncovered and shared! And it’s happening now, under the radar, with the general public in the dark. This “ultimate vote fraud” is intentionally complicated to keep it obscure until it’s too late to stop it. This complete expose on the “National Popular Vote Compact” won’t be found elsewhere. Because of the complexity and urgency of this issue. read it through completely. See who is behind this scheme and what its intended consequences are.Then spread the word in your blogs, forums and forward to all your contacts now. There is still time to block the NPVC sufficient states passage – only if we act now!All of US urgently need to contact our State Assemblymen, State Senators and Governors to vehemently oppose this covert measure! See below the real facts of this manipulation of the Constitution and American electorate. See Your State Status and action needed in last column.Called the “National Popular Vote Compact” this movement has been in the works nationwide – without public attention – on a state-by-state level since at least 2008.Like other surreptitious actions against the U.S. Constitution, the NPVC “movement” has several promotional websites claiming to represent “true democracy.”The NPVC is a bill now moving state-by-state to make the popular vote winner President by bypassing normal requirements to amend the Constitution. Tts outcome would ensure the Presidency would be declared by giving all the required 270 Electoral Votes needed for a “winner” to the candidate who wins the largest number of popular votes nationally – no matter how small the win margin and no difference how many states voted to oppose him. Here’s how it works: Once enough states have passed the NPVC bill into law to reach the requisite 270 Electoral Votes (by totaling the EV’s of those states which pass this bill) the NPVC goes into immediate effect in the next – and all subsequent – Presidential elections. It doesn’t matter how strongly other states oppose this. We’d all have to go along, if even a minority of states pass it! • Currently, this bill has passed enough state houses to reach more than 160 EV’s – so they are well over half way to their goal right now.According to most up-to-date information this National Popular Vote Pact has already passed 1 of the 2 required chambers in more than 30 other states- without public attention.If their magic number of 270 EV totaling states is reached, it won’t matter how the rest of the states vote on this; nor whether other states never take up the bill; not even if other states vehemently object and oppose this action. It would be the Law of the Land!This sneaky scheme to upend Constitutional rights and protections of all states and their residents in selecting the nation’s leader is underway as an explicit attempt to defeat the careful Constitutional amendment process with no public knowledge, no voter input, no public referendums and no input from states which object to this measure. All NPVC takes is a portion of current state houses to make it law for all of us – always!

Who is behind the National Popular Vote Compact?George Soros – and that’s not all. If you have any doubt left about the purpose of this Constitutional reversal in favor of a Presidency by national popular vote, consider these facts and check out these references:

Summary: George Soros favorite game is taking over the politics (and governments) of countries. If you’re not familiar with his bio, you should be. See here his role in the bogus movement toward a popular vote. Soros son, Jonathan, propaganized ”It’s’ time to junk the electoral college” all the way back in 2008. We know by know how their ilk uses long-term, heavily financed astro-turf “reform” movements – under cover of nice-sounding names, multiple websites and distorted messages to increase their public appeal. Here’s what the National Popular Vote movement wants you to believe. Their operatives began moving this Plan through state assemblies even before 2008 election. See an actual chart of the scope of Soros spiderweb of behind-the-scenes influence here.

What’s their game: Take the 2012 election – and those that follow – by the cheapest, most expedient means. Save time and money by focusing “electioneering efforts” (including illegitimate ones) in major population areas to make those vote totals overwhelm the votes of the rest of US. This makes it easy for Obama to continue ignoring increased public resistance – if half the states and nearly half the voters just won’t count anymore anyway. Most of US are by now familiar with the bombardment of attempts to subvert our government under cover of populist propaganda to appear “more truly democratic.” See below those behind this clever manipulation of the law – to pass a “newer and better” way to choose a President without the proper Constitutional amendment.(And somebody tell them our founding fathers formed a Republic, not a democracy!)

Meet the Men behind this “Compact”: Vikram Amar & Akhil Reed Amar. The National Public Vote Compact bill, promoted nationwide, came from this source in 2001. Since then, the same bill based on their strategy has been filed in states nationwide!Digging into the background of the National Public Vote Compact – as a means to radically and permanently shift the basis of the Presidency, here’s what we found: highly credentialed attorneys (and brothers) who devised this “state bill” compact, as a strategy to get around the normal requirements for constitutional amendment – and, instead, undermine the Electoral College by bypassing both Congress and the voters! V. Amar is the author of hundreds of legal articles and several books. Although his age is included in a wiki-bio, Vikram’s country of origin is not mentioned. His articles cover topics like this:”Should Christian groups on state campuses by allowed to restrict their membership to Christians.” Many articles are aimed at using the legal system against the Constitution. Here’s two books he’s written: “Processes of Constitutional Decisionmaking” and The Bill of Rights: Creation and Reconstruction. Akhil Amar has also “recently proposed that every American should be required to undergo a DNA test so that a national DNA database can be created.” Together this pair has made many other monstrous “legalese” proposals including how an “Instant Run Off System” could “remedy the flaws” in America’s voting system; term-limiting Supreme Court Justices and improving the Presidential line of succession in the event of “election terrorism.” By no strange coincidence, the brainstormer of this end-run to trick the public and the Constitution by a minority of favorable state lawmakers, Vikram, also keeps busy writing frequent legal articles in defense of the constitutionality of ObamaCare! Need we wonder who is financing this scribe?

Conclusion: WAM has done the math and citizen action is urgent to stop this Compact!States where it has already passed add up to 171 Electoral Votes of the 270 required. 81 more Electoral Votes are at stake in states where NPV has passed 1 of the 2 needed chambers. Additionally, States where NPV is listed as currently active legislation hold more than 100 EV. There are under 100 total (electoral vote bearing states) more for this to be our law nationally – and there are way more than enough states with this in process to meet that end goal before 2012 Election!!! Shockingly, numerous Republican state officials have fallen for the popular vote strategy. Enough GOP have supported it, for NPV.com to brag this is a “bi-partisan” measure (along with bogus polls claiming how We the People want this!) Banners of progressive newspaper editorial endorsements are topped (of course) by the New York Times. Some GOP have co-sponsored this in their state. More have even voted for its passage! Whether these are ill-informed, popularity-seeking, bribed or just too dumb to do the math we can’t say. What we know is this probably means no more Republican presidents ever – and Obama back in 2012, if only by the tiniest of margins!Evidently, it’s going to take all of US to contact our own state assemblyman, state senator and governor to inform them of how destructive (and “progressive”) this national vote compact really is.Hmmmm..........“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” ~ Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776.Read and see the full story here.

Rebels: Gadhafi's son Saif al-Islam captured alive.(MSN).Slain dictator Moammar Gadhafi's influential son and heir-apparent, Saif al-Islam, has been captured alive and uninjured, rebel sources told NBC News on Saturday. Saif al-Islam and Moussa Ibrahim, the former spokesman for the Gadhafi's regime, were both captured in the Libyan city of Nessma, near Bani Walid, and were currently being transported to Misrata, rebel forces told NBC News.The collaring of Gadhafi's fugitive son and spokesman could not be immediately verified. Rebel forces have been incorrect in the past with their reporting of the conditions and whereabouts of Gadhafi's loyalists.Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, whose name means "Sword of Islam," was the most elusive of the late Libyan leader's eight offspring. He was wanted on war crimes charges but evaded a manhunt for months to remain the only leading family member still at large.Rebels credited the Osoud el Wadi brigade, which translates as "Lions of the Valley," with the latest roundup of Gadhafi arrests.Meantime, Gadhafi's body remained in Misrata, bearing wounds assumed to have been inflicted by fighters from the city who hauled him from a drain in his hometown Sirte.Gadhafi's family and international human rights groups have urged an inquiry into how Gadhafi, 69, was killed, since gory cellphone video footage showed him alive but being beaten and taunted by his captors. Controversy has surrounded the fate of Saif al-Islam, the most enigmatic of Gadhafi's children. He apparently turned within weeks from philanthropist and liberal reformer into a fighter ready to die on his home soil rather than surrender.A senior official of the National Transitional Council said on Friday that it was suspected that Saif al-Islam had fled south from the last Gadhafi stronghold of Sirte towards Libya's border with Niger, where another son has already taken refuge. Educated at the London School of Economics and a fluent English speaker, Saif al-Islam was once seen by many governments as the acceptable, Western-friendly face of Libya. But when a rebellion broke out in February against his father's 42-year rule, Saif al-Islam immediately chose family and clan loyalties over his many friendships in the West. "We fight here in Libya; we die here in Libya," he told Reuters TV in an interview early in the rebellion. Three of Gadhafi's sons have died on their home soil during the civil war. Gadhafi's four other children — three sons and a daughter — are scattered in exile in neighboring Algeria and Niger.Read the full story here.Related - How much damage could Saif still do to Britain: Why New Labour may not relish Gaddafi's son telling all in a war trial.Read the full story here.

The Iraq War Ain’t Over, No Matter What Obama Says.(Wired).President Obama announced on Friday that all 41,000 U.S. troops currently in Iraq will return home by December 31. “That is how America’s military efforts in Iraq will end,” he said. Don’t believe him. Now: it’s a big deal that all U.S. troops are coming home. For much of the year, the military, fearful of Iranian influence, has sought a residual presence in Iraq of several thousand troops. But arduous negotiations with the Iraqi government about keeping a residual force stalled over the Iraqis’ reluctance to provide them with legal immunity.But the fact is America’s military efforts in Iraq aren’t coming to an end. They are instead entering a new phase. On January 1, 2012, the State Department will command a hired army of about 5,500 security contractors, all to protect the largest U.S. diplomatic presence anywhere overseas.The State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security does not have a promising record when it comes to managing its mercenaries. The 2007 Nisour Square shootings by State’s security contractors, in which 17 Iraqi civilians were killed, marked one of the low points of the war. Now, State will be commanding a much larger security presence, the equivalent of a heavy combat brigade. In July, Danger Room exclusively reported that the Department blocked the Congressionally-appointed watchdog for Iraq from acquiring basic information about contractor security operations, such as the contractors’ rules of engagement.That means no one outside the State Department knows how its contractors will behave as they ferry over 10,000 U.S. State Department employees throughout Iraq — which, in case anyone has forgotten, is still a war zone. Since Iraq wouldn’t grant legal immunity to U.S. troops, it is unlikely to grant it to U.S. contractors, particularly in the heat and anger of an accident resulting in the loss of Iraqi life.It’s a situation with the potential for diplomatic disaster. And it’s being managed by an organization with no experience running the tight command structure that makes armies cohesive and effective.You can also expect that there will be a shadow presence by the CIA, and possibly the Joint Special Operations Command, to hunt persons affiliated with al-Qaida. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has conspicuously stated that al-Qaida still has 1,000 Iraqi adherents, which would make it the largest al-Qaida affiliate in the world.So far, there are three big security firms with lucrative contracts to protect U.S. diplomats. Triple Canopy, a longtime State guard company, has a contract worth up to $1.53 billion to keep diplos safe as they travel throughout Iraq. Global Strategies Group will guard the consulate at Basra for up to $401 million. SOC Incorporated will protect the mega-embassy in Baghdad for up to $974 million. State has yet to award contracts to guard consulates in multiethnic flashpoint cities Mosul and Kirkuk, as well as the outpost in placid Irbil.“We can have the kind of protection our diplomats need,” Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough told reporters after Obama’s announcement. Whether the Iraqi people will have protection from the contractors that the State Department commands is a different question. And whatever you call their operations, the Obama administration hopes that you won’t be so rude as to call it “war.”Read the full story here.

Afghanistan to back Pakistan if wars with U.S.: Karzai.(Reuters).Afghanistan would support Pakistan in case of military conflict between Pakistan and the United States, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview to a private Pakistani TV channel broadcast on Saturday.The remarks were in sharp contrast to recent tension between the two neighbors over cross-border raids, and Afghan accusations that Pakistan was involved in killing the chief Afghan peace envoy, former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, by a suicide bomber on September 20."God forbid, If ever there is a war between Pakistan and America, Afghanistan will side with Pakistan," he said in the interview to Geo television."If Pakistan is attacked and if the people of Pakistan needs Afghanistan's help, Afghanistan will be there with you."Such a situation is extremely unlikely, however. Despite months of tension and tough talk between Washington and Islamabad, the two allies appear to be working to ease tension. In a two-day visit to Islamabad, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton issued stern warnings and asked for more cooperation in winding down the war in Afghanistan, but ruled out "boots on the ground" in North Waziristan, where Washington has been pushing Pakistan to tackle the Haqqani network.The Haqqani are a group of militants Washington has blamed for a series of attacks in Afghanistan, using sanctuaries in the Pakistani tribal region along the Afghan border.Pakistan is seen as a critical to the U.S. drive to end the conflict in Afghanistan.Pressure on Islamabad has been mounting since U.S. special forces found and killed Osama bin Laden in May in a Pakistani garrison town, where he apparently had been living for years.The secret bin Laden raid was the biggest blow to U.S.-Pakistan relations since Islamabad joined the U.S. "war on terror" after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.Karzai said tensions between the United States and Pakistan did not have any impact in his country's attitude toward Pakistan.The TV channel, Geo, did not say when the interview was conducted.Afghans have long been suspicious of Pakistan's intentions in their country and question its promise to help bring peace. Karzai repeated that concern in his remarks."Please brother, stop using all methods that hurt us and that are now hurting you."Let's engage from a different platform, a platform in which the two brothers only progress toward a better future in peace and harmony," he said.Following the death of Rabbani, Karzai said he would cease attempting to reach out to the Afghan Taliban and instead negotiate directly with Pakistan, saying its military and intelligence services could influence the militants to make peace.Hmmm......Don't you love our 'allies'?Read the full story here.

Islam and Islamists.(DocsTalk).The term "Islamist" is in common use to refer to Muslim individuals and organizations that adhere to Islamic law's political aspects (most notably its denial of any legitimacy of a separation between religion and the state) and consequently most fiercely oppose America, Israel and the West in general. The implication is that Islam itself, in its authentic form, has no requisite political aspect, and no incompatibility with Western values or democratic government.The problem with this is that it is a Western, artificial distinction, imposed by non-Muslims upon the Islamic world and lacking any real substance with reference to Islamic law as it has always been formulated by the Sunni and Shi'ite madhahib (schools of jurisprudence). Islam has always been political, and the union of religion and the state has always been essential to its political program; the idea that all this can and should be separated from Islam proper is the wishful thinking of Western analysts who do not wish to face the implications of the fact that these ideas represent mainstream Islamic thinking.In line with this, I recently received this email from a Jihad Watch reader in Canada:

A conversation with several friends on Facebook erupted into something quite extraordinary. An 18 year old Muslim student, from Western University and born in Mississauga had this to say about the distinction between Islam and Islamism:"case and point on why you dont understand Islam. No one makes this distinction [between Islam and Islamism] other then the Western world, for the sake of having a tidy little system to classify everything. Our religion and political ideology are one. Furthermore, I really wouldnt use the term islamist or Islamism. Many muslims, including myself, find the term deeply offensive."In other words, IN CANADA, there is an entire generation of Muslims who openly subscribe to 'Islamism' as indistinguishable from Islam.Hmmm....Seems like there is no 'light' version of Islam.Read the full story here.

Canada - Police uniforms include the hijab.(TorontoSun).Whether it’s worn by a police officer, hockey player, usher, or soldier, surely the ostensible reason for donning a uniform is to have, well, uniformity.But things are changing in regard to uniforms at that ever-sensitive “service” formerly known as the Toronto police force.Indeed, the police have announced they’re going to accommodate Muslim policewomen who want to wear the hijab on duty.Some might hail such a move as another shining example of “reasonable accommodation”; others — count me among them — look upon this directive as another assault against Canadian traditions.Yet again, a public institution appears to be bowing to the tyranny of political correctness — bending over backwards to accommodate certain individuals, some of whom are quite unaccommodating of western values.The question arises: What’s driving this directive? Why is it important for the police to have hijab-wearing policewomen in the first place?Contrary to widespread popular belief, the Qur’an doesn’t mandate Muslim women to wear the hijab.In this regard, the apparel accommodation isn’t the same as allowing a Sikh to wear a turban.(I’d also argue there’s an historical reason for permitting Sikhs to wear turbans, given that Sikh military brigades have long been an integral part of the British Empire.) If anything, the hijab is a political statement and a symbol of fundamentalism.In some cases, a woman wearing such a headscarf is being pressured by her family to do so (case in point, the dearly departed Aqsa Parvez.) Either way, seeing such a garment as part of a police uniform is odd. Imagine if a citizen was to call the cops regarding a suspected honour killing in the neighbourhood and the policewoman who responds is decked out in a hijab? Would this not be unsettling?Also, the police have surely put themselves in a sticky situation regarding haberdashery accommodation.For example, if a female police officer demands that she be allowed to wear a niqab or a burqa, how could such a request possibly be denied, given the precedent that’s been set with the hijab?Indeed, just how far do we take reasonable accommodation in the police department?Do Muslim police officers reserve the right not to work with the Canine Unit, given that many Muslims consider dogs “unclean”?Will ham sandwiches be banned from police stations due to dietary restrictions?As well, is there not a profound double-standard at play here?Read the full story here.

Canada: Controversial Muslim Conference to go Ahead in Mississauga.(Vinienco).The conference Calling the World Back to Allah, which has raised so much dust throughout the GTA over the last few weeks after being linked to allegations of anti-Semitic and anti-gay remarks, will indeed go ahead over the weekend.The event will now be held at ISNA Canada (Islamic Society of North America, Canada), at its Mississauga headquarters.ISNA staff confirmed that the conference is now scheduled to take place on its premises this Sunday, Oct 23.But at the same time, they also sought to distance themselves from the event. “ISNA is not organizing the conference, all we’re doing is providing a venue for the event,” was the response to a Focus query.The full-day conference is part of the Canada Launch Tour of the Islamic Education and Research Academy (IERA), a British organization seeking to establish a presence in Toronto and Montreal.The conference in Toronto was earlier scheduled to be held at the Sheraton Centre, but appeared to have been effectively nixed after allegations emerged that speakers at the conference had made disparaging remarks about gays and Jews.Another conference had been scheduled for Montreal late this week, at Concordia University, but appeared to have been cancelled, as at the time of filing this report.In a sidelight to unfolding events, various faith groups representing different denominations plan to demonstrate outside ISNA headquarters in Mississauga against the holding of the conference.“The Canadian Hindu Advocacy, along with a multifaith coalition, will be joining the Jewish Defence League of Canada on Sunday 3-5pm to protest outside Islamic Society of North America in Mississauga,” Ron Banerjee of the Canadian Hindu Advocacy said in a statement.An official release listed the names of several faith groups — including Pakistani Christians, Egyptian Copts, other Hindu organizations as well as Sikhs — as forming part of the demonstrators.While the conference has raised such deep passions within various communities — as well as South Asians — due to its speakers having allegedly expressed both anti-gay and anti-Semitic sentiments, Banerjee sought to make a distinction on Hindus’ stance regarding gays.“I’m not a priest, but I’d say the difference really is between expressing disapproval of gays versus inciting actual violence against them,” he said.Banerjee added the Hindu religion itself has historically been slightly more tolerant of gays.Meanwhile, media reports also say the advocacy Banerjee heads often opposes Islam and Sikhism. During a speech at a 2010 rally for right-wing Dutch politician Geert Wilders, Banerjee reportedly said Islam is less a religion than an ideology.Banerjee also has his detractors within Hinduism, the faith he purports to represent.For instance the Hindu Federation, headed by Roopnauth Sharma, recently said that “self-proclaimed representatives” of the community do not speak for more than 80 per cent of the Hindus in Ontario.The federation is a coalition of at least 14 GTA area temples.Read the full story here.

Turkey’s hidden love affair for Sharia.(WashingtonTimes). SuzanneFields.Erdogan pivots from secular West to Islamist East.A young American man with black hair and dark brown eyes checked into a small hotel in Capadaccio, where visitors to Turkey flock to see the famous lava formations carved into the landscape.“Are you Muslim?” the clerk asked, acknowledging his Semitic features.“No, I’m Jewish,” the young man replied, smiling and assuming the question was asked in good faith and good humor.“Oh, the clerk replied, disappointment in his voice. “This is not a good time for Jews in Turkey.”A general observation rather than a personal one, but it was true enough. This is not a good time for Jews in Turkey. The bond between Israel and Turkey, once strong, is now frayed and weak. The closeness of the two modern countries was forged in their dedication to democratic secularism, with strong trade, military ties and unifying attitudes toward economic growth binding them together. Turkey was the first country with a Muslim majority to recognize the state of Israel.Western dress is associated with Western ideas, and the ideas - but not the dress - seem to be disappearing. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey has turned away sharply from the West.Israel is the canary in the coal mine, the first to breathe the toxic fumes of political change as the Turks seek to win Islamist friends. The government expelled the Israeli ambassador and cut military ties with Israel after the Israelis refused to apologize for the deaths of nine Turkish “activists” on a ship in a Turkish-based flotilla attempting to break the Israeli embargo to Gaza. Israel has expressed “regret for the loss of life,” and a United Nations investigation concluded that the Israeli blockade was legal and the Israeli commandos acted only in the face of “organized and violent resistance.”The Turkish reaction sounds like a ploy to signal Islamists that Turkey is on their side. “While diplomats and generals too often ascribe tensions between Turkey and the West to a reaction to the Iraq War,” says Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute, “or disappointment with the slow pace of the European Union-accession process, or anger at the death of nine Turks killed in a clash with Israeli forces aboard the blockade-challenging Mavi Marmara, in reality Turkey’s break from the West was the result of a deliberate and steady strategy initiated by Mr. Erdogan upon assuming the reins of government.” Mr. Erdogan emphasized his secularism initially and Western officials, eager to believe him, ignored his record and his party’s ties to Islamist ideology.“Thank God Almighty,” said Mr. Erdogan in 1994, when he was the mayor of Istanbul. “I am a servant of Shariah.”His favorite newspaper, an anti-Western daily, espouses “neo-Ottomism,” celebrating Turkey’s imperial past in contrast to Attaturk’s modernism. Many in the West hailed his reduction of the army, but he destroyed the check-and-balance role of the military without putting a civilian alternative in its place. The prime minister has locked up without charges secular officers, journalists and opposition leaders.Western governments presumed that Turkey allowed NATO to build a radar station on its soil to monitor a nuclear threat from Iran, but on a recent trip to Africa, Mr. Erdogan made a point of saying that the real nuclear threat is from Israel. He dallied on imposing sanctions against Syrian repression and now says the United Nations should sanction Israel.When a young populist politician in 1999, Mr. Erdogan ran afoul of Turkey’s constitutionally mandated secularism and was imprisoned for reciting a poem expressing militant Islam: “Minarets are our bayonets, the domes our helmets, the mosques our barracks, and the believers our army.” Many Turks, who have learned that keeping a low profile is the better part of survival, fear Mr. Erdogan was not merely reciting poesy, but speaking his mind and biding his time.Hmmm......What's the 'hidden' link between Erdogan and Obama you may ask?Read the full story here.

How much has Israel's safety deteriorated under Obama's presidency?(PajamasMedia).By BarryRubin.Remember a peculiar fact: even though Gaddafi was generally a horribly repressive anti-American dictator, in his final years he tried making a deal with the Americans. Gaddafi was frightened by the U.S. attack on Iraq in 2003 and didn’t want to be next on the list. So he cooperated, gave up his nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction programs, and reduced his foreign subversive efforts.That did not save him from being overthrown by the United States, just as it did not save a genuine American ally, President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt. On this point, I’m not advocating anything about what the United States should have done in Libya but just observing how it will be received in the region.Bashing the West in the current era brings little cost. Here’s a partial list:

Egypt: Obama courts Muslim Brotherhood and is indifferent to anti-Americanism of the newly empowered political forces

Gaza Strip: Terrorist Hamas gets Western support to stay in power, including bashing of Israel’s military operation and pressure on Israel to minimize sanctions.

Lebanon: No opposition to Syria-Iran sponsored forces and Hizballah; readiness to deal with the government they now control; no enforcement of 2006 UN resolution to stop arms smuggling and Hizballah’s return to the south. Incidentally, on the same day Gaddafi dies the first Hizballah delegation is officially received in Moscow.

Palestinian Authority: Refuses negotiations with Israel; refuses compromise; ignores U.S. requests but gets rewarded by the whole world while its enemy Israel is reviled.

Syria: Courted by the Obama administration; protected at the UN by a Russia-China veto, facing only very limited pressure despite massive repression.

Turkey: No punishment for regime’s sabotage of 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, sabotage of sanctions on Iran, alliance with radical Islamist forces. In fact, Obama administration rewards.

In contrast, allies — Bahrain, Mubarak’s Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the moderate oppositions in Iran, Lebanon, and Turkey — are not helped or are even punished by the West and especially the U.S. government.

Thus, the region will note that when Gaddafi was a leading sponsor of terrorism, subversion, and anti-Americanism, he got away with it. When he was on “good terms” with the United States, he lost power. That might not be fair, but it seems to make sense in terms of Middle Eastern political philosophy.Hmmm.......Indeed...."I will stand with my Muslim Brothers".Read the full story here.

Turkish Piri Reis exploring for oil and gas in Cypriot waters.(CM). Navies from at least three countries are converging on the eastern Mediterranean in the vicinity of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), according to reports yesterday, as Turkey continued talking tough and asserting its geo-strategic interests in the region.The Jerusalem Post said Turkey has deployed gunboats and helicopters to escort its research vessel, the Piri Reis, as it explores for gas and oil. According to the paper, the United States has discreetly dispatched an aircraft, and Russian naval vessels have been seen patrolling.The same report said US reconnaissance planes have circled the Piri Reis on at least two occasions, and on another occasion low-flying Israeli fighter jets and choppers “harassed” a Turkish ship.Local media meanwhile said a French corvette was expected to arrive in waters southwest of Cyprus’ Block 12 gas prospect and would be patrolling the area for a month. Other reports insisted a Russian submarine is already patrolling the same waters, while a Russian “armada,” or an aircraft carrier, is set to arrive sometime in the next few weeks.The Piri Reis was said to be operating within Block 12 in relative proximity to the Homer Ferrington rig, located some 160 km off the coast. Vessel-tracking website marinetraffic.com likewise placed the Turkish ship there.Turkey’s Institute of Marine Science and Technology, which owns and operates the vessel, said the Piri Reis would remain in the area for a week more.Turkey disputes Cypriot and Israeli offshore territorial claims and says Cyprus should not exploit resources until it resolves a standoff with its breakaway Turkish-speaking north.Energy reserves in the Mediterranean have further raised the stakes in existing political disputes in the region.Dependence on imported energy has helped push Turkey’s current account deficit to about 10 per cent of gross domestic product this year.The US Geological survey estimates that the Levant Basin, a triangular slice of the Mediterranean lying between Cyprus and Israel, may hold 122 trillion cubic feet of gas. That's more than the 86.2 trillion cubic feet held by all EU countries combined, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.Speaking on Turkish television channel Kanal 7, Turkey’s Minister for EU Affairs Egemen Bagis called Greek Cypriots the “Trojan Horse of Israel”.Bagis reiterated that Cypriot drilling was a “provocation” to Ankara, adding: “They are drilling holes in the Mediterranean … as if the natural resources around the island are a fizzy drink. It’s not as if the gas is going anywhere.”And Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu again stressed the Turkish side would press ahead with explorations as long as Greek Cypriots continued doing so.“As you know, we have rights in these territories, we also have rights in the undersea resources,” Eroglu told reporters.Responding to Bagis’ comments, Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis said gung-ho statements like these show that Turkey not adhere to international rules. “It is the EU candidate who must adapt to the bloc, and not vice versa,” said Marcoullis. “It seems they have not understood this basic fact which governs the relations of all candidate countries.”She confirmed that the government has made representations to the United Nations Security Council over the Piri Reis’ forays into Cypriot waters.Hmmm.....I'm Obama's best buddy i can bully the whole world....It's mine....All mine?Read the full story here.

Vice Premier Ya'alon: 'Additional construction freeze would be ethnic cleansing'.(JPost).By Gil Hoffman.Vice Premier Ya'alon responds to reports that Netanyahu willing to partially freeze settlement construction if Abbas resumes direct talks: "Islamic fundamentalism, not settlements, cause of ME instability."Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon came out fiercely against a reported proposal for an Israeli construction moratorium in Judea and Samaria Saturday night, calling the prohibition of Jewish building “ethnic cleansing.”Speaking to a packed audience at Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue, Ya’alon referred indirectly to a Haaretz report that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is willing to freeze all construction on government land in West Bank settlements if Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas resumes direct diplomatic negotiations. The demand for territory without Jews anywhere else would be called ethnic cleansing,” Ya’alon said. “We cannot accept a demand for ethnic cleansing in the land of Israel.”Ya’alon said that Israel was under pressure from people who incorrectly believe the cause of the Middle East conflict is the building of homes in Judea and Samaria. He denounced that theory as “a corrupt way of thinking” and explained why the true cause of Middle East instability was the Islamic fundamentalism emanating from Iran.The vice premier expressed confidence that an International Atomic Energy Association report set to be released on November 7 would expose to any remaining skeptics in the international community the military intentions of Iran’s nuclear program. He said he hoped sanctions on Iran could then be tightened.Ya’alon called the Arab Spring “a regional earthquake” that exposed young Muslims to Western ideals such as human rights, women’s rights, freedom of speech, and “the sanctity of life as opposed to the sanctity of death.”But he said he was not encouraged by radical elements apparently gaining the upper hand in Egypt and Tunisia, al-Qaida infiltrating Libya and Iran attempting to export its Islamic fundamentalism throughout the Arab world.He made a point of not explaining his vote against the Gilad Schalit deal beyond what he had said before about his heart saying yes and his head saying no.“We should be happy about the reunification of Schalit’s family but prepared to deal with the consequences for the future as a government and a society,” he said.Read the full story here.

Stabbing attack in Jerusalem;17.year old youth severely wouned.(YNet).Police and army forces continued to search for a suspect who stabbed a Jewish youth at the Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramot on Saturday. The police believe that the attack, which left the victim, 17-year-old Yehuda Ne'emad, with serious injures, was nationalistically motivated.IDF troops were stationed at the entrance to Kfar Iksa, a nearby Palestinian village, and a police helicopter hovered above the region for hours in an attempt to locate the attacker. Large police forces from the Jerusalem District scoured the area as well in coordination with the IDF.The forces arrived at Kfar Iksa, which is located west of Jerusalem, and searched the homes in the village, where the suspect is believed to be hiding. A joint army and police operations center was set up on the outskirts of the village to coordinate the manhunt.Defense establishment officials estimate that the terrorist exploited the fact that the separation fence, which divides Israeli and Palestinian territories, does not extend to Kfar Iksa, which is located less than half a kilometer from Ramot. The attacker could have slipped in and out of the neighborhood unimpeded.Earlier, forensic experts scoured the crime scene for evidence. Dozens of curious onlookers gathered at the site. "We are currently conducting an investigation and checking all possible leads," Police Commander Haim Blumenfeld said. "We have evidence from the scene, and at the moment the primary lead focuses on a nationalistic motive."Magen David Adom emergency services said that the teen was stabbed twice, in the abdomen and in the back. He was rushed to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem in serious condition. The patient underwent a surgery and hospital officials said later that his condition had improved. His state was defined as moderate, and he appears to be out of immediate danger. Waiting outside the operating room, the Ne'emad's father told Ynet that he was informed of the attack by his younger son. "It is a great scare, and we are trying to deal with it," he said. "We are mostly busy with praying for him right now.""We won't stop living here, it could have happened anywhere and no one is immune," the victim's mother said. "I never thought that it's dangerous to let my kid go out on the street."According to an initial inquiry, the police and MDA received a call about a stabbing victim around 4 pm. Eyewitnesses told Ynet that the attacker came up to Ne'emad, who was walking down a street with his friend, and stabbed him without any provocation. A local doctor who rushed to aid the victim said that "the attacker began to chase a 12-year-old girl, but fortunately he failed to catch her." When onlookers began to gather on the scene, the perpetrator escaped.The second teen's mother said that Ne'emad attempted to fight the attacker after being stabbed for the first time. The attacker tried to chase her son as well, but the latter managed to evade him. The attacker then returned and tried to stab Ne'emad again.Security forces and medical teams were dispatched to the scene immediately, where they discovered the youth, bleeding from multiple stab wounds. Eliezer Asulin, the first MDA paramedic on the scene, told Ynet: "We arrived at the site and found a young man lying on the floor and suffering from stab wounds in his abdomen and back. "He lost a considerable amount of blood and his condition began deteriorating as we were treating him. We evacuated him as soon as possible."A local resident said that many Palestinians from Beit Iksa frequent the Ramot neighborhood. He added that while the area hasn't seen hostile incidents lately, the Palestinians "often taunt us and the young women who pass by."Read the full story here.Related - 'I thought I was going to die'.Read the full story here.

Dit Tehran Acknowledge Responsibility For Plot In Washington?(Vinienco)By Hadi Norouz.Tehran was taken aback to see the plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington was foiled, and that all fingers were immediately pointed at the mullahs for being behind the scheme. They certainly hadn’t prepared for the possibility that the United States would lose no time to unravel the plot and Iran’s connection to it.The mullahs did try hard to cover up the matter and their direct involvement in the assassination plot, but they were not successful. Instead, rather embarrassing for Tehran and its lobbies, it was soon found that the very high ranking Iranian authorities had spoken about the plot in the open and admitted planning of the event both before and after it was foiled.Mohammad Karim Ebadi, a member of the Iranian Parliament (also member of the Security and Foreign Affairs committee), spoke about the plot just before it was revealed by the US.Speaking on October 11th, only a few hours before the plot was unraveled by the US government, Ebadi said: “Today, the Islamic Republic of Iran has agents inside the Israeli capital, Tel aviv, who are ready to carry out their assigned missions when time comes.”Speaking with the Iranian news agency, Ebadi said the Iranian Information system is very strong and well equipped and stressed: “We have agents infiltrated in Tel aviv as well as in every other part of the occupied Qods. Our agents are from among muslem, christian and jewish communities. They are ready and waiting to carry out their missions when it becomes necessary.”To make the matter even clearer, another Iranian high level authority spoke about Iran’s intentions on October 15th. Mehdi Taeb, Commander of the Ommar Military Base, said:“ Should it be needed, we are strong enough to kill King Abdollah himself. So what is the need to try and kill a low ranking person.”The terrorist threats made by the Tehran authorities are far more numerous if they are looked for. Tavakoli, another member of the Iranian parliament, was quoted on the Iranian website “Alef”, when he threatened the Saudi government: “I hope the day does not come, but should it be necessary to answer all the treasons and treacheries committed by the Saudi family against the Iranian nation, the Iranian armed forces will ensure that the sacred land of Hejaz will get rid of the dirty name of the Saudi family.”The fact is that Tehran’s terrorist activities are constantly spoken about by all levels of the regime’s hierarchy and with all such remarks, the mullahs lobbies in the U.S. and Europe have a difficult task to achieve in their attempt to deny all allegations against the mullahs.To complete the picture of the mullahs in Iran, one might look at how Khomeini stressed in his own will that “he would never forgive the crimes of the Saudis who are worse than the Americans.”Read the full story here.

Iran’s Ahmadinejad condemns Syria for ‘killings and massacre’.(AlArabiya).President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned the “killings and massacre” in Syria in an interview with CNN, in Iran’s strongest criticism yet of its key ally’s deadly seven-month-old crackdown on dissent.“We condemn killings and massacre in Syria, whether it is security forces being killed or people and the opposition,” Ahmadinejad said, according to excerpts of the interview reported in Farsi by the website of Iran’s state broadcaster on Saturday.“We have a clear formula for Syria and that is for all sides to sit together and reach an understanding... therefore these killings cannot solve any problems and in the long term it will lead to a deadlock,” he added.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Iran in mid-September “not to spoil” the Syrian leadership.“I cannot say there has been tension with Iran but we warned them (the Iranians) that ‘the Assad administration is getting spoiled with your encouragement,’” Erdogan said.Tehran has made maintaining good relations with Ankara a priority in recent years, and has considered Turkey an ally for its refusal to implement Western sanctions imposed over its controversial nuclear program.But in recent months Tehran has criticized Ankara over its agreement to host an early-warning radar as part of NATO’s missile defense system. Tehran says the system is aimed at protecting Iran’s arch-foe Israel.The European Union has accused Iran of assisting Syria in its crackdown on anti-government protests, a charge Tehran has rejected as “baseless.”In late August, the EU named the al-Quds force, the covert operations arm of the elite Revolutionary Guards, on a new list of those under sanctions for their suspected role in quelling the protests.The European Union accused the force of providing “technical assistance, equipment and support to the Syrian security services to repress civilian protest movements.”Ahmadinejad’s statements are the first to go against the official policy towards the Syrian uprising set by the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Khamenei has called the upheaval in Syria a “fake revolution” fabricated by the U.S. and Zionists.Ahmadinejad has in recent months been battling constant criticism from hard-line conservatives accusing him of being in the thrall of “deviant” advisers who want to undermine the role of the Islamic clergy, including the office of supreme leader.His latest comments on Syria can be viewed as the widening of the rift between himself and the supreme leader which has now spilling over onto Iranian foreign policy. Iran on Friday hailed the killing of long-time ally and former Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi in the capture of his hometown Sirte and said it hoped his death would spell a swift end to NATO's military intervention. Iran once enjoyed strong relations with Qaddafi, who broke rank with Arab states to support the Islamic Republic in its war against Iraq in the 1980s.“The inevitable fate of all dictators and oppressors who do not respect the rights of their people is destruction,” the official IRNA news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying.Hmmmm......Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.~ Plato.Read the full story here.

Jordan’s Islamists snub new government.(AlArabiya).Jordan’s powerful Islamist opposition said on Saturday it would not join the reform-mandated government of prime minister-designate Awn Khasawneh, a decision reflecting its “pessimism.”“The executive offices of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamic Action Front (IAF) decided, after a joint meeting, to refuse to participate in the government,” read a statement on the Brotherhood’s website.“Pessimism replaced our original satisfaction because, according to leaks, it seems the new government will resemble its predecessors,” it said.“The delegation appointed to negotiate with Mr Khasawneh will submit to the prime minister-designate a list of the Islamist movement’s demands,” the statement added without elaborating.The state-run Petra news agency later said “the prime minister received on Saturday evening a delegation of the Islamist movement which expressed its refusal to take part in the (next) government.”The king last week dismissed the government of prime minister Maaruf Bakhit and replaced him with Khasawneh, an International Court of Justice judge, instructing him to focus on political reform in Jordan.Khasawneh is expected to announce his government on Monday, according to officials.Since January, Jordan has faced protests demanding political and economic reforms and an end to corruption.Read the full story here.

70m Arabs live under poverty line.(Emirates24/7).The Arab world’s population stood at around 351 million at the end of 2010 and nearly 70 million of them live under poverty line in the absence of sufficient growth in the local economy, a Saudi prince has said.As the region lacks what are termed as “banks for the poor”, only around three million of those people benefit from existing financial services in most member states, said Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz, chairman of the Riyadh-based Arab Gulf Program For The United Nations Development (AGFUND), “The latest estimates show that the combined population of the 22 Arab countries stood at around 351 million at the end of 2010,” he told Saudi newspapers.“Around 19.7 per cent of them, or nearly 70 million, live under poverty line….about 35 million of those people are qualified for financial services (bank loans and other facilities) but only three million can get them.”Prince Talal, the father of well-known Saudi billionaire Prince Al Waleed, estimated domestic personal demand for credit in the Arab region at $18-27 billion a year but he said only around $1.5-2 billion is utilized.“What we need now is to introduce small sized loans to support the poor through special banks for the poor…these types of loans are now one of the most effective and successful solutions to tackle poverty,” he said.“The Arab region does not have sufficient number of banks and other financial establishments….more such units are needed to be set up.”According to the Cairo-based Arab League, many regional nations are suffering from poverty because of a rapid population rise and slow economic growth due to poor investment, low exports, flawed economic policies and other factors.In 2009, the poverty rate was above 30 per cent of the total population in such countries as Sudan, Somalia, Mauritania, Djibouti, Yemen, Palestine and Comoros. The rate averaged around 19.6 per cent in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Bahrain, Jordan, Morocco and Algeria.Besides those factors, many Arab economies have remained dormant because of conflicts and high defence spending, which was at the expense of development expenditure, the League said in a recent report.Its figures showed defence and security allocation in all nations have averaged as high as 28 per cent of the current expenditure over the past eight years while economic affairs allocations have not exceeded eight per cent.“Latest indications point to a decline in poverty rates in some Arab countries but an increase in others…despite the decline in those members, the poverty rates are still considered very high,” the report said.“Poverty in the Arab countries is closely linked to economic growth rates and developments in wealth distribution…economic growth alone is not enough to reduce poverty as wealth re-distribution could not be to the advantage of the poor…Arab states should focus on even and fair distribution of wealth.”Hmmmmm........How much revenue do they have from Oil?Read the full story here.

History of Saudi-Iranian Frictions.(CrossRoadsArabia).By Adel Al Toraifi.On 5 June, 1984, two Iranian fighter jets violated Saudi airspace. This was not the first time that the Islamic regime in Iran had sought to threaten Saudi Arabia by illegally infiltrating its airspace. Saudi Arabia later sent personal messages to Imam Khomeini and then President Ali Khamenei via Syrian mediators, informing them that Saudi Arabia would not remain silent in the face of these provocations.At that time, the Gulf was witnessing what came to be known as the “Tanker War”, with Iraq and Iran attacking each other’s oil tankers, with Saudi and Kuwaiti oil tankers also being affected by this. As a result, King Fahd – God rest his soul – issued an order to confront Iranian fighter jets [infiltrating Saudi airspace]. Saudi Arabia was able to shoot down one Iranian fighter jet, although another account reports that two planes were actually shot down. Tehran was enraged and dispatched more than a squadron of fighter jets to illegally enter Saudi airspace. Saudi Arabia responded by deploying two aircraft squadrons [to defend Saudi airspace] and thanks to the capabilities of Saudi Arabia’s air force – being equipped with Airborne Early Warning and Control system [AWACS] – Saudi Arabia was able to force Tehran to retreat. Furthermore, for a period of time Iranian aircraft was unable, for some time, to even cross outside of Iranian airspace. former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam reveals the details of two interviews he conducted in this regard; one with then Iranian President Ali Khamenei; and the second with the Saudi side, within the framework of his unsuccessful attempt to mediate between the two countries.Khamenei said: "Saudi Arabia carried out this act, that is to say attacking Iranian aircraft, more than ten times. Only once was it successful and able to shoot down one of our planes. Saudi Arabia is not a superpower, and we are saying that it is not even a power.”Henner Fertig (2002) and others who wrote about this period say that the policy of “mutual deterrence” that Saudi Arabia was pursuing with regards to Iranian harassment had a huge impact on Iran backing down and changing its previous behaviour. Saudi Arabia's decisive reaction to Iran's acts of sabotage during the 1987 hajj pilgrimage represented an effective deterrence to Iran’s transgressions, because the Iranians realized that the strong Saudi reaction would not be a justification in the eyes of Iranian public opinion if Tehran failed to respond, as it would reveal the weakness of the Iranian regime.Some contend that Iran does not believe any foreign power is capable of invading it. Hence, it is reassured that the worst others could do is impose extra sanctions to exhaust the domestic budget rather than try and change the regime. In spite of all this, the anti-regime protests staged in 2009 in the wake of the Iranian Presidential elections revealed the fragility of the Iranian regime from within. Those who are skeptical about the account of the attempted assassination of the Saudi Ambassador must realize that Iran could be – as some writers have indicated – feeling a real threat to its interests, especially if its Syrian ally collapses. Iran’s latest attempt might reflect the fact that it is running out of options and strategic cards, the last of which was its tampering with the issue of Shiite minorities in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Iran's threats have reached the extent whereby an Iranian MP, Kareem Abadi, stated that Iran has the power to occupy Saudi Arabia. Yet this is nowhere near the actual military capabilities of Iran. We must recall that the state of confidence which the Iranian regime portrays and wants others to feel is nothing but a smokescreen to hide a disappointing economic and military reality. A Gulf official once said to me: "We have tried engaging in dialogue with the ruling regime in Iran several times and directly conveyed our threats to them. Unfortunately, they only understand the language of force." A former Iranian official told me that Supreme Guide of Iran, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had once said in a private meeting with Iranian officials: "The Bedouin Sheikhdoms in the Persian Gulf are nothing but "Nomads" – as the Holy Quran says – who understand nothing except the language of force."Indeed, a misunderstanding exists between both sides. But the unalterable truth for any scholar of the revolutionary regime in Iran is that it is a regime concerned with staying in power first and foremost; a regime that steps back whenever it feels seriously threatened. In his article titled "Who Wants to Assassinate Saudi Arabia's Ambassador" Ata'ollah Mohajerani is correct when he says: "If we acknowledge for the sake of argument that a group affiliated to the Revolutionary Guard Corps aims to start a new war in our region, it is them who should be held accountable and pay the price, not the people of the region."Read the full story here.

In Memory Of Alexander Munch (1948 - 2012).

Israeli Six-Day War Vet.

Previous Blogs here and here."
If liberty means anything at all, it means
the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." George Orwell.

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Irshad Manji.

"Muslim refusenik" is a phrase Manji uses to identify herself as someone who refuses to "join an army of robots in the name of God.".

Ayaan Hirsi Ali .

Wafa Sultan .

"Telling the truth after proper investigation is the height of courage." - Wafa Sultan.

Hagarism - The Making of the Islamic World.

Pakistani Women's Human Rights Organisation

Persian2English -

Stop Child Executions

I Stand With Israel !

Koran 7:7, where G-d Himself bequeaths the Land of Israel to the Jews, as a nation who thought themselves weak, and blesses them with goodness.Source

Shariah: The Threat to America

This book is based on the statements of the world's leading Shariah authorities and Shariah academic scholars.

The Abuse of Holocaust Memory.

Myths of Islam

"Religion does not require women to veil their hands, feet and faces or enjoin any special type of veil. Tribal custom must not impose itself on the free will of the individual."

Amanullah Khan - King of Afghanistan (1919-1929).

The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, head of Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni world.“The niqab is a tradition and has nothing to do with Islam,” said Sheikh Tantawi, vowing to ban it in Al-Azhar schools.After the girl complied he insisted she should not wear it any more.“I tell you again that the niqab has nothing to do with Islam and it is only a mere custom. I understand the religion better than you and your parents.” The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar imam vowed to issue a ban against the face-veil in all schools linked to Al-Azhar.“Source

The Jewish Holocaust.

The Armenian Holocaust.

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